NewsScan Daily, 14 May 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 14 May 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Japan: Land of the Rising Lawsuit
       Google to Sell Banner Ads on Other Sites
       Researchers Find WiFi Flaw
       Yahoo: 'All (or Most) Retailing Is Local'
       Suspected Agobot Trojan Author Arrested
       The Big Switch From Landline to Wireless

FEATURES        
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: John Dryden

VERISIGN SUIT AGAINST ICANN
    A federal court in Los Angeles is preparing to consider a lawsuit filed
by VeriSign against ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers, which coordinates the Internet addressing system). The suit was
filed because ICANN prevented VeriSign from implementing its Site Finder
search system, which redirects Internet users who mistype Web addresses to
other sites that pay VeriSign for the increased traffic diverted its way.
VeriSign says that a ruling in favor of ICANN would "discourage innovation,"
whereas former ICANN chairperson Esther Dyson says that a ruling against the
organization would mean that "special interests prevail over the general
interest." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 13 May 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8660740.htm

JAPAN: LAND OF THE RISING LAWSUIT
     Japanese electronics manufacturer Fujitsu has sued South Korea's
Samsung for allegedly violating its patents on plasma-screen technology, and
has convinced Japanese customs to halt imports of Samsung's plasma panels. A
Japan-based member of the Samsung group immediately filed a counter-suit to
get the import ban lifted, while the South Korean government threatened to
take the matter to the World Trade Organization. The struggle highlights a
new trend in corporate Japan: companies that in the past paid little
attention to their intellectual property and patent holdings are now using
them to make money or cut business deals. And firms that once stayed on the
defensive in disputes are increasingly willing to play the role of the
heavy. (The Age 4 May 2004) rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/03/1083436532744.html

GOOGLE TO SELL BANNER ADS ON OTHER SITES
     Google has begun selling banner ads and other graphic ads, on a test
basis, for display on other companies' Web sites. The new ads won't appear
on Google's own site, though Google says that may change in the future. (The
company now sells only small text ads related to the content of a page on
its own site.) Google vice president Tim Armstrong says that advertisers are
moving away from cost-per-thousand pricing to a system that's much more
targeted specifically to most-likely customers: "The world of advertising is
getting more quantitative and data-driven," he says. (New York Times 13 may
2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/technology/13goog.html

RESEARCHERS FIND WIFI FLAW
     Researchers at Queensland University of Technology in Australia have
discovered an easily-exploited vulnerability that can be used to take down
most 802.11 wireless networks. The flaw operates at lower network layers
than most previously-discovered security flaws in 802.11 networking, and
affects any network operating at the 2.4GHz frequency -- which is the sole
frequency used by the most popular wireless protocol, 802.11b. (The
Australian 13 May 2004) rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9549723%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,
00.html 

YAHOO: 'ALL (OR MOST) RETAILING IS LOCAL'
     Yahoo thinks there's a lot of money to be made by linking Web surfers
with local retailers, restaurants, dry cleaners and other businesses.
(Currently, 20-25% of online queries have some local component.) Ted Meisel,
president of Yahoo's search engine subsidiary Overture, says: "We think now
is the right time to go after the local market. We are seeing users start to
look for local information and we see commerce opportunities in local
search... We are going to make it easier for advertisers to participate."
Yahoo senior marketing executive Cammie Dunaway says: "Yahoo is pretty
multidimensional. It is a great search engine, but it is much more than a
search engine." (Of course, Google is also busy adding features such as free
e-mail that will make it "much more than a search engine.") Yahoo's
marketing emphasis will be on major retailers and other large businesses in
a region, as well as the creation of a locator page for small businesses
that currently have no online presence. (Washington Post 13 May 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25522-2004May13.html

SUSPECTED AGOBOT TROJAN AUTHOR ARRESTED
     A 21-year-old German man has been arrested and charged under the
country's computer sabotage law for creating the Agobot Trojan, a malicious
computer worm. (This case is unrelated to the Sasser worm, which was also
traced to a young German man). Five other Germans have also been charged in
connection with the distribution of these Trojan programs. (The Age 13 May
2004) rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/13/1084289788041.html

THE BIG SWITCH FROM LANDLINE TO WIRELESS
     The Federal Communications Commission says that at least 2.8 million
U.S. consumers have moved their telephone number between wireless carriers
or between a wireless phone and a landline phone since November. FCC
chairman Michael Powell says he switched carriers for his work wireless
phone as well as for his wife and son and that he "was shocked at how well
it worked." (Reuters/USA Today 14 May 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/phones/2004-05-14-phoneports_x.htm

*****  

FLASH CARD 
     "Beware the fury of a patient man." (John Dryden)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: JOHN DRYDEN
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the English man of letters John Dryden
(1631-1700), who excelled as a poet, dramatist, and literary critic during
England's turbulent 17th century. At first, Dryden wrote only poetry, but
turned to writing plays to make a living. Much of his writing sprang from
his involvement with the political controversies of his day. Appointed poet
laureate in the reign of Charles II, he became the royal historiographer and
soon found himself involved in the king's political disputes with
Parliament. Later he lost the laureate position when the Protestant monarchs
William and Mary replaced Charles's successor, the Roman Catholic James II.
Dryden, who had abandoned his protestant roots to practice Catholicism,
refused to swear allegiance to the new rulers, thereby forfeiting all
government emoluments. In the years following before his death a decade
later, Dryden was forced to support himself by producing translations of
classic authors such as Virgil. He also turned out a few plays and poems
after 1688, "Alexander's Feast" (1697) being considered his best poem of the
period.
     Dryden was born and grew up in the Northampton countryside. His family
were puritans who sided with Parliament in the civil war that broke out when
he was 11 years old. He received a classical education at Westminster School
and later earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College, Cambridge.
He drew his first notice as a poet for the "heroic stanzas" he contributed
to a memorial volume honoring Oliver Cromwell. It was the first evidence of
the kind of public poetry that would always be Dryden's strong suit. When
Charles II was restored to the throne in May 1660, Dryden again displayed
his mastery of the rhymed couplet by the poems he wrote welcoming (Astraea
Redux, 1660) and then celebrating the coronation of Charles II (To His
Sacred Majesty, 1661).
     In 1663, Dryden married Elizabeth Howard, and they had three sons. When
the poet laureate, Sir William Davenant, died in 1668, Dryden was appointed
poet laureate in his place and two years later was appointed royal
historiographer. These appointments came as no surprise, in view of the fact
that Dryden had continued writing poems complimentary to the royal image. In
the previous year he completed the long poem, Annus Mirabilis (1667), which
celebrated the English fleet's two victories over the Dutch and London's
survival of the Great Fire of 1666. Among Dryden's better-known poems are
the political satire, Absalom and Achitophel (1681), and MacFlecknoe (1682),
his mock-epic satire on Thomas Shadwell, the literary foe who later became
Dryden's replacement as poet laureate. Other noteworthy poems are: Religio
Laici (1682), which defends the Church of England against its enemies and
The Hind and the Panther (1687), written in defense of Catholicism." Dryden
also wrote excellent literary criticism, in which he discusses the dramatic
unities, blank verse, and the nature of satire and evaluates such authors as
Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson. Dryden died in 1700 and was buried in
Westminster Abbey between Chaucer and Abraham Cowley in the Poets' Corner.
Acknowledging his preeminence, literary critics often refer to the late 17th
century as the Age of Dryden.

See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0192840770/
newsscancom/ref=nosim for the major works of John Dryden -- or look for them
in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from book recommendations
to adult literacy programs.)

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